Thursday 7 April 2016

Pots of Potatoes


I have eight florists buckets in the cold frame planted with Vivaldi earlies.  It means they are protected against the cold wind and frosts.    I am using home made compost to cover them as they push through.  I haven't bothered to sieve it and as you can see there are bits of stems that haven't quite rotted down in the mix, but I don't really think it matters.  One thing I look forward to is the first harvest of potatoes some time in late May/early June.  They grow pretty well in containers as long as they are well watered.  I have been growing them this way for the last four or five years very successfully.  Just enough for a couple of meals per pot.  I usually grow Charlotte but couldn't get hold of any at my local garden centre so bought Vivaldi instead - a similar tasting potato and hopefully just as versatile.  Fresh from plot to pan to plate - totally delicious.  To my mind this is what growing your own veg is all about.

"The flowers of the potato, delicate petals whose stamens bunch together to form a point, are amongst the most charming in the vegetable garden.  Marie Antoinette wore them in her hair. The flowers of the Salad Blue are perhaps the most beautiful of all, an ethereal lavender and white, with deep orange-gold stamens often heavy with pollen.  Charlotte, a soft candy pink; Kestrel, a piercing lilac and white.  Summer rain and even cloud makes their flowers close and droop like a swan in repose.  As dusk falls, they gently close."~ Nigel Slater



8 comments:

  1. I noticed that garden centers were out of seed potatoes this year, maybe more people are growing their own. That dish has my mouth watering! Yum!xxx

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  2. I once did the same in September, and had new potatoes for Christmas.

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  3. I used to use Florists' buckets, (8 for 99p at Morrisons), but I found that they didn't give the spuds much room to grow, and they dried out rapidly. I have now moved on to bigger (35-litre) tubs, which I used last year for the first time. BTW, Charlotte is one of my favourite varieties too.

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  4. Oh they're making good headway Elaine. I didn't know that Marie Antoinette wore the flowers from the humble spud as a garland on her head. You certainly do learn something new every day. The last photo in your post is rather naughty :)

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  5. I'm growing potatoes for the first time this year but in the ground. I've been reading up on growing them in pots though and will probably go that route next year. Have you tried fingerlings in pots?

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